opalescent

English

Etymology

From opal +‎ -escent. First attested in 1813.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /oʊpəˈlɛsənt/
• Rhymes: -ɛsənt

Adjective

opalescent (comparative more opalescent, superlative most opalescent)

1. Exhibiting a milky iridescence like that of an opal.
   • 1979, J.G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company, chapter 9:

     Below me, through the opalescent surface, I saw the white ghost of the Cessna.

Translations

exhibiting a milky iridescence like that of an opal

• Finnish: opaalinhohtoinen, opaalinen
• French: opalescent (fr)
• Hindi: दूधिया (hi) (dūdhiyā)
• Irish: ópalach
• Italian: opalescente (it)
• Portuguese: opalescente (pt)
• Romanian: opalescent (ro)
• Spanish: opalescente

French

Etymology

From opale +‎ -escent.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔ.pa.lɛ.sɑ̃/, /ɔ.pa.le.sɑ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

opalescent (feminine opalescente, masculine plural opalescents, feminine plural opalescentes)

1. opalescent
   • 2017, Jeanne Bocquenet-Carle, Que tombent les étoiles:

     Dehors, le soleil ne déclinait plus, fixant les heures dans une clarté constante. Dix et seize heures diffusaient la même couleur. En marchant dans la lumière opalescente, elle ressentit un picotement. Un fourmillement qui se répandait sur sa peau et que chaque femme d’Ouessant connaissait bien.

     Outside, the sun did not go down, fixing the hours in a constant clarity. Ten in the morning and four in the afternoon cast the same colour. Walking in the opalescent light, she felt a tingle. A prickling which spread over her skin and which every woman in Ushant knew well.

   • 1893, Revue médicale de la Suisse romande, volume 13, page 336:

     On procède immédiatement au barbotage dans une solution d’acétate de plomb; il se produit rapidement une opalescence laiteuse par précipitation de carbonate de plomb, puis deux minutes environ après l’injection, le liquide opalescent vire au gris, puis au brun très clair (café au lait).

     We immediately proceed to bubbling in a solution of lead acetate; a milky opalescence quickly develops by precipitation of lead carbonate, then about two minutes after injection the opalescent liquid turns gray, then a very light brown (coffee with milk).

Derived terms

• opalescence

Further reading

• “opalescent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French opalescent.

Adjective

opalescent m or n (feminine singular opalescentă, masculine plural opalescenți, feminine and neuter plural opalescente)

1. opalescent

Declension

Declension of opalescent

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	opalescent		opalescentă	opalescenți	opalescente
	definite	opalescentul		opalescenta	opalescenții	opalescentele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	opalescent		opalescente	opalescenți	opalescente
	definite	opalescentului		opalescentei	opalescenților	opalescentelor